Great Western Coffee Shop

From my trip home last night - 150/207 on the 22:04 Bristol Temple Meads to Westbury

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wannabe165.jpg)

Looks like a "wannabe 165" ... 2 + 3 seating, big luggage area, and a couple of other things which I don't recall in the Wessex area before such as directions on how to use seats and door buttons.

Train picked up a lot of folks at Bath Spa - nothing like as quite as the pictures suggest

Wow ::)

I noticed the shiny new paint job on the outside last night, and the new accessible toilet (which can only be an improvement on the utterly useless one that was previously installed), but looking at your photos grahame, I can see that several other ‘enhancements’ have been made, including the fitting of CIS screens, new door control buttons (replacing the 1980’s originals, but retaining the ‘vintage’ instruction label - a nice touch! :D), painting of the grab rails by the doors, and it even looks as if the floor covering’s been cleaned!

Good to see that much of it’s ‘unique’ (for GWR anyway) Northern character has been retained  ;)

I love the bunk beds (top, middle) - is this the new Melksham sleeper?

I’m sure grahame would have liked it to be running via Melksham last night  ;)

No its the new stand in when the sleeper loco breaks down :o!

Chance would be a fine thing.   

Melksham service still comes to an end silly-early in the evening.  Busyness (and it was from Bath to Bradford on Avon, where I got off) was noticeable - even some people using middle seats;  used private transport for the five miles from B-o-A home and as a result was home well over an hour earlier than I would have been on the late bus.

Serious need to extend services to start earlier / run later in Wiltshire - topic raised in the SWLEP rail strategy meeting / report last week so that need to extend may become "official policy" ... which doesn't actually get us the service, but at least helps unlock a door!

Edit to add


Tooooo true!   Need for late train is bubbling to the top of the "must do" list!

I'm not sure later trains will run simply to facilitate your rock n roll lifestyle Graham!  ;)

You sound just like Derek Twigg on BBC Radio 4 - "We're not going to run a train just for Mr Ellis" in early 2006.

Oh - we have trains now at the times requested.  And we've had problems like not enough space for everyone who wanted to travel ...

This is why I said on another thread, that we need a Cheltenham to Westbury service via Stroud now and needs to be from May, I hope GWR have taken my advice and read this forum. Then the Cheltenham to London hourly added as well. This would give Melksham a decent hourly service up until 23:00 at nights.

You won't get anything this May at this stage as the Timetable is all but finalised now.   There are already 2 trains a day to Westbury via Stroud in each direction

Yeah, not just Melksham, all routes going east of Bath need a better late evening service. Its not unreasonable to want to leave Bristol/Bath around or after 23:00. Buses few and far between at those times as well. And if you can't get back, then  it means taking the car in on the outboard journey.

Or booking a taxi.

From the Lancashire Telegraph (https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/17371217.angry-commuters-organise-early-bird-bus-to-manchester-as-rail-bosses-refuse-timetable-change/) - riveting and relevant reading in Wiltshire ...


There is a growing need for the rail industry to expand its day return trip / commuter services to meet modern early start and later finish demands.   I look at the Darwen (population not too different to Melksham) article, and I'm actually envious of that 07:07 arrival - we can get to Bristol for 07:47 (07:29 with a 2 minute connection at Trowbridge) or Swindon for 07:48, and our last train back is from Swindon at 20:08,  versus 23:12 from Manchester to Darwen.

SLC3, which should have come in last December, specifies a morning train into Swindon to arrive there by 06:15 ... it does not change the service threshold though, and there was some concern in the draft timetables that a hole was going to be created in the middle of the day via balancing withdrawal of an existing train (and bear in mind that every existing train carries more passengers that the AVERAGE for all trains what was required for the service to be made permanent!  Although this was not the first choice of extra train, it would be welcome and it would be used, even at 05:30 from Melksham; it might take a while to build as people move residence to Melksham and Trowbridge / are able to take early start jobs in Swindon. It would also allow day trips to London for a full day in the office there.

Evening train back ... as a starter, that 23:20 off Bristol than runs to Frome also needs to serve Chippenham, Melksham and Warminster ... probably Swindon too.

The net result ... will be to bring us to no more than a similar setup to what Darwen has already ... and they're complaining it's not enough.  Which rather suggests we could usefully have even a further extension to the day.  A massive price has been placed on an evening train for us ("quote high enough and you'll put the community off"?) said to be based on the need for an extra crew shift for the one service.   How about moving up shifts during the day, having a crew start for the early train, moving up a daytime crew, and then an evening commute to late one - that way, you buy two extra round trips for the price quoted for one.

The discussion regarding earlier and later services led me to dig out some old timetables for comparison with the service at present.

When Wessex Trains introduced the enhanced Melksham service, the spread of services throughout the day was quite good (although there were considerably fewer services than now). The January 2006 timetable had a 05:37 Westbury to Swindon service, giving an arrival time at Swindon of 06:20 Mondays to Fridays. The last trains were also later than present. Mondays to Fridays there was a 21:18 Westbury to Swindon service, returning from Swindon at 22:11. On Saturdays there was a 20:27 Southampton Central to Swindon service, returning from Swindon to Westbury at 22:25. On Sundays there was a 20:34 Westbury to Swindon service, returning from Swindon at 21:41.

The last train from Bristol towards Westbury also operated slightly differently. Mondays to Thursdays, the 23:10 service from Bristol terminated at Westbury. The last train from Portsmouth was booked to sit at Westbury for 30 minutes before heading to Frome, providing a connection out of the Bristol train. On Fridays, the Bristol train continued to Warminster. The last train on a Saturday night ran earlier than present as the 21:30 Cardiff to Warminster service. A connection was available at Westbury into a 23:45 service to Frome.

The Bristol to Swindon route has historically had a relatively early last train in that direction as a consequence of it being a former Intercity route as opposed to a former Regional Railways route. An option now could be a later Bristol to Swindon service that on arrival at Swindon forms a later service to Gloucester to avoid empty stock mileage. It is a shame that electrification to Bristol has been 'deferred' as a 387 unit would have been ideal for such a working (Bristol to Swindon) now that the units are stabled at Swindon Cocklebury sidings each night.